Autonomous unmanned vehicles (AUVs) do not include an onboard pilot, and are also not piloted remotely, unlike unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) such as drones. Accordingly, the AUV is not only unmanned, but the AUV is also autonomously operated by onboard electronics that guide its activities with an aim toward mission completion. Because the AUV will be operated autonomously, the AUV must be given instructions regarding mission accomplishment, and those instructions must often be followed without any real time control being possible.
Given that the AUV will act as its own decision maker when deployed, it is important to ensure that the AUV will act properly when on mission. Accordingly, testing of the AUV becomes an important task. However, the instructions provided to the AUV can be fairly comprehensive and substantial. For example, each command for turning right or left, for maneuvering up or down, and for executing various actions must be written and tested for proper execution within the execution environment. Moreover, since the AUV is expected to be tested on a test range where both the test environment and the real world environment must be considered relative to safety concerns, it can be appreciated that the testing of such platforms can be difficult. Thus, a mechanism by which to evaluate AUV performance with improved realism in a cost effective manner is clearly desirable.